Over on the Underground Bunker, a lot of people have been reacting to the bizarre twist in Marty and Monique Rathbun’s lawsuit with comments like:

“My first thought is that I hope Monique, Marty and their baby are safe and well. No matter what other stuff is going on, that’s the most important part of all of this.”

Yeah, I’m not so sure about that. Let’s not forget that a) this is bigger than Marty and his family, and b) Marty has plenty of blood on his hands (figuratively speaking). The Rathbuns started something, something that could have helped a lot of people and made up for a lot of damage, and now they’ve backed away. One could question whether they had a moral obligation to continue. I can see both sides.

When I saw Marty’s “Rue this day” post, my first thought was, “True colors.” His continued silence hasn’t changed my opinion. LRH wrote something about “misemotion” that was pretty accurage, and I think it applies here: When one reacts with an inappropriate emotion, it’s probably because one feels guilty.

So what happened? We just can’t know. I can’t help but think of Bob Minton backing down and saying “It was like the Terminator was after you.” I didn’t think the Co$ still had that kind of bite, but maybe it does. So maybe the Co$ has blackmailed Marty. (Tony seems to think that isn’t the case, and I suppose he has good reason, though I wish he’d share his thoughts.)

Or maybe Monique just got sick of the whole thing and said “Stop it or I leave.” (Whether Marty should have dragged Monique into this is another question.)

To me, this feels a lot like Mr. Minton’s reversal; the difference is that Bob wasn’t in, he wasn’t DM’s right-hand man, and he wasn’t the one helping to make the misery happen.

The Rathbuns started something big, and now they are stopping it, and a lot of us are going to be disappointed. But we can live with that.

More worrying are the families that are broken up, the lives wasted and destroyed, and the fortunes sunken into this terrible, dangerous, life-destroying business-masquerading-as-a-religion. The Rathbuns’ lawsuit was a great opportunity to help stop that, and now it looks as if that chance is going to disappear.

Sure, it’s great that Marty can get on with his life, and his wife and child the same. But considering the consequences, is that *really* the most important thing?

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Tony Ortega did a great job covering the death or Brad Halsey yesterday, but I am going to go one step further and share my opinion: Brad Halsey was killed by Scientology.

I’m sure you all read the story: Mr. Halsey was a long-time Scientologist who was declared an SP by the Church, but remained loyal to Hubbard and his Scientology “tech”. After a motorcycle accident (which is proof to Scientologists that he was a Potential Trouble Source, or PTS, connected to suppression; PTSs are accident-prone), Mr. Halsey was in severe pain, but like a good Scientologist, he refused to take pain medication. (Scientology teaches that drug companies are evil, part of the galactic psychiatric conspiracy. No, seriously, they believe that.) As a devoted Scientologist, it’s a safe bet that he also refused traditional medical care, choosing instead to relieve his symptoms with auditing and “touch assists.”

Eventually, the pain became too much and Mr. Halsey decided to take his own life – or, as he apparently wrote in his suicide note, leave his body. This is what Scientology teaches: If the body breaks down too badly, just get rid of it and let it die. The “thetan” (spirit) will simply pick up another one, and if one has paid enough to be an Operating Thetan, one can bypass the “implant stations” set up by the evil galactic overlord Xenu and continue on as one was.

Now, we all have our own beliefs of what happens after death. You may think Brad Halsey is in Heaven, or Hell, or Purgatory, or you may think he is nowhere. Gone, zero, blanked out, kaput. You may even think he will be re-incarnated with similar traits.

But Scientologists believe that Brad Halsey, the sentient, reasoning, identifiable being, voluntarily left his body, literally flew out of it, and (provided he did not take the option of touring the stars or taking a decade or two off to live as a horse or a dog – Hubbard mentioned that as an option) is, as we speak, occupying the body of some newborn baby somewhere — very likely with all of his knowledge, experience and personality intact, or at least just below the surface.

All he needs to do is wait it out for a few years ’till he’s old enough to pick up the E-Meter cans, then he can get back to helping to depose Miscavige and purify the Tech, or whatever it is the indies think they are going to do.

I’m straying from my point, so let me reiterate: Brad Halsey chose to avoid medication and end his own life based on the outcome promised to him by L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology.

It’s the same mindset that keeps people like Shelly Miscavige and Heber Jentzsch in Scientology’s prison camps… by their own free will.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe everyone has the right to end their own life – but I’d rather it be a properly informed choice. Mr. Halsay made his decision based on what Hubbard told him. Had Mr. Halsey recovered from his Scientology experience, would he have made the same choices? Or would he have pursued proper medical care, and perhaps managed to live a longer life with less pain… or perhaps no pain at all?

Sadly, we will never know, because Brad Halsey was a believing Scientologist.

To Mr. Halsey’s loved ones, I offer my deepest condolences, and I hope you will understand the spirit in which this article is written.

And to L. Ron Hubbard, I say: Congratulations, you old fraudulent fuck – twenty-eight years dead and you got another one. I bet you’re laughing your flabby, Vistaril-filled ass off.

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Something that was pointed out in an anti-Scientology book or interview I read/heard recently (there were a couple) — L. Ron Hubbard’s use of the word “data.”

LRH uses the word “data” (correctly) to refer to pieces of information. But now we get into one of the slicker elements of Hubbard’s con: The reliance on dictionary definitions (only of words he didn’t redefine, of course) rather than accepted usage.

The word “data” implies facts — in fact, the definition in Webster’s dictionary is “facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something.” (Oddly enough, the definition of “datum,” the singular form, does not mention facts.) At the time Hubbard re-wrote his own language, the word “data” was also being associated with then-new electronic computers, which were not broadly understood and often assumed to be infallible.

So by skillfully using the word “data,” the ol’ fraud subtly implied that the information he was giving was factual.

Hubbard would say “Here is a datum concerning blah blah blah,” and give some sage-sounding piece of nonsense advice: “A stuck flow always reverses on the terminal,” or some shit like that. Scientologists would refer to this as a “datum” and regard it as factual.

In fact, what Hubbard should have said was “Here’s an idea I have about blah blah blah.” or “Here’s a theory.” I wonder how Scientologists would have reacted to his ideas then? They’d probably still buy in, but at least they wouldn’t think they were somehow flawed for not understanding it. (Of course, then the con wouldn’t work.)

It’s a subtle use of language that should remind us all what a brilliant con man L. Ron Hubbard was — and that Scientology outside of the Church is just as dangerous as Scientology inside the Church.

Here’s a bit of “data” for you: If you live your life by the advice given by L. Ron Hubbard, you’re still in a cult, and you’re still giving over your mind to a dangerous con man who only had the answers to one thing: How to line his own pockets with his victims’ money.

Long read (and still growing), but worth it — lots of people making legitimate criticisms of LRH, pretty severe ones at that — entheta to be sure. And yet Marty is letting the conversation take place! I added my own comment, we’ll see if it escapes censorship.